------------------------------------------------ | What's New in WebSpace Navigator for Win32 ? | ------------------------------------------------ WebSpace Navigator V1.0 for Win32 Updated: 4-Sep-95 Copyright (C) 1995 Template Graphics Software Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highlights of This Release (details below): - Windows95 Support! (Beta Release) - Complete VRML 1.0 Support! - GZIP Support! - HTML Browser Integration Details: - Windows95 Support This release of WebSpace for Win32 will run on both WindowsNT and Windows95. See the README.TXT file for system requirements and so on, but a 486DX2/66 with 8MB of memory seems to work just fine. NOTE: For Windows NT this is the production release of WebSpace 1.0. For Windows 95 this is the Beta2 release of WebSpace 1.0. Same executable, different level of stability. For Windows 95 we are currently using a pre-release version of Microsoft's OpenGL implementation. - Complete VRML 1.0 Support, including: + WWWAnchor Node WebSpace/Win32 now changes the cursor to indicate the presence of a linked object (instead of changing the object's color). WebSpace/Win32 now displays the WWWAnchor's "description" field by default, with an option to display the actual URL. Check it out, some authors are making very creative use of descriptions. Also note that in WebSpace a WWWAnchor can be linked to any URL, not just other VRML files. See "HTML Browser Integration" below. + WWWInline Node WebSpace/Win32 now supports nested WWWInlines and downloads them in the "background" so you can navigate freely through the scene while the WWWInlines are being fetched. When authors use this feature effectively, you get an effect similar to the way your HTML browser displays the text while it's still fetching images. The "placeholder" for a WWWInline is a wireframe bounding box. This is definitely the way to go if you only have a modem! + Texture Node WebSpace/Win32 now supports texture maps provided as either GIF or JPEG files (sorry, no support for .rgb files in this release). Like Inlines, texture maps are fetched asynchronously, allowing you to navigate freely through the scene as soon as it appears. Without a hardware accelerator, it's still not practical to move around with the textures applied, but by default WebSpace turns textures off while you're moving and back on when you stop. The visual effects are great, but watch out for scenes that have a large number of large texture maps! You can't always tell from the size of the VRML file how long it will take to download all the inlines and textures. Try the "gasbldg.wrl" example we've provided (this model was created at UCLA -- see their web page for author information). + LOD (Level Of Detail) Node You may have seen some of the discussion about this node on the VRML mailing list. Now try it out for yourself! It's true, you can even do "cheap tricks" like having a door open as you walk up to it. Of course this sort of cheap trick will be ever-so-tacky once we have "real behaviors" in VRML, but it's still fun. :-) Try the "loddoor.wrl" example we've provided. Hint: Turn off the "Degrade on Move" option in the View menu to see the door change while you are moving (otherwise WebSpace automatically uses the lowest level of detail while you are moving). + AsciiText and FontStyle Nodes Geez, how do you expect people to navigate through cyberspace if there are no signs! :-) Let's get some text in those worlds. + Other Of course WebSpace/Win32 still supports IndexedLineSet, PointSet, multiple cameras, multiple lights and all the common VRML "hints" including viewpoints. See the (HTML) help files that come with WebSpace for more information about hints. - GZIP Support Been wondering what's in all those mysterious ".gz" VRML files, but don't want to download and unzip them all by hand? No problem! WebSpace/Win32 now handles them automatically and wow, do they ever download quickly compared to the uncompressed versions. WebSpace handles gzip'd VRML files, WWWInline files and texture files. (See the README.TXT for important notes about configuring the HTML browser.) - HTML Browser Integration Don't you hate it when every time you click on a VRML link in your HTML browser it pops up another instance of your VRML browser? How about when you click on a WWWAnchor in your VRML and it pops up another instance of your HTML browser? Pretty tacky. The days of "passive" helper applications are over. WebSpace/Win32 works with Netscape, Mosaic and other browsers that support the DDE protocol. So only one instance of each browser appears. When you click on a WWWAnchor in WebSpace and it's not a VRML file, the link is handled by your HTML browser and your other helper applications. So you only configure your helper applications once, in your HTML browser! This opens up all kinds of possibilities for coordinated display of text, graphics and sound -- for example on-line instruction manuals. Note: We are currently working with a number of other HTML browser vendors to extend support for the DDE protocol and we invite all HTML browsers to work with us. We will be officially opening our browser integration testbed on our Web site this week. We are also working with browser vendors on other interface technologies like OLE. - Performance As promised, this release of WebSpace/Win32 is not only feature-rich but substantially faster than the Beta release. Of course there's no such thing as "fast enough" in this business, so we're continuing to work on rendering speed. The next release will be even faster. - SGI Logo Yes, that is the Silicon Graphics logo at the top of the WebSpace window. No, Silicon Graphics did not buy TGS!!! We are still an independent software company and we still continue to implement and support WebSpace for the Win32 environment. But, Silicon Graphics does own the trademark "WebSpace", so they can have their logo any where they want it. Note: We gratefully acknowledge the various pieces of SGI code from the UNIX version of WebSpace that we were able to re-use. See the About Box and other documents for copyright acknowledgements and other legal stuff. We are also pleased to be able to base WebSpace/Win32 on the totally awesome Open Inventor 3D toolkit, developed by SGI and integrated with Microsoft Windows by TGS. - New Tools WebSpace/Win32 now includes some useful tools for working with VRML: + VRMLLint A utility program that parses a file and verifies that it conforms to the VRML 1.0 specification. Note: This is a console application, so you have to run it from a command prompt. + IvToVRML A utility program that reads in an Open Inventor file and spits out a conforming VRML file. Note: This is a console application so you have to run it from a command prompt. - Open Inventor Files Oh yeah, WebSpace/Win32 can still read more than just VRML files. WebSpace/Win32 can also read Open Inventor ".iv" files. The Open Inventor file format is (roughly speaking) a superset of VRML and some additional Open Inventor nodes are being considered for the VRML 1.1 specification. Why would you want to do that? Well, there are some things you just can't do in VRML yet. For example you can use the LightModel node to tell the browser not to do lighting because vertex colors have already been computed, you can use the Environment node to specify the level of ambient light, and you can use the Complexity node to tell the browser it's OK to render built-in objects like cone and sphere with lower tessellation. That's why some sites have been maintaining two versions, one in VRML and one in Open Inventor, at least until the new features for VRML 1.1 are specified. There are also a growing number of applications that support the Open Inventor format as an export option. In the engineering design area, for example, check out: Parametric Technology, Unigraphics and SDRC . Please note however: Changing the header line and file extension does not necessarily turn an Open Inventor file into a VRML file! Either keep your Inventor files as Inventor files or use the tools we provide to convert and verify. In any case, you may want to try some of the Open Inventor files we provide as examples. - Miscellaneous + In the "Options" menu you can now specify the default viewer type. This is the viewer type, Walk or Examiner, that will be used when the VRML file does not contain a Viewer hint. + All option settings and bookmarks are now saved in the .ini file. Template Graphics Software Inc. 9920 Pacific Heights Blvd., Suite 200 San Diego, CA 92121